Suze: May 18, 2025. Welcome everybody to the Women and Money
Suze: podcast as well as everybody smart enough to listen. Suze O here,
Suze: and today is Suze School. So get out your little
Suze: Suze notebooks, although by now they should be fat little things.
Suze: But what's so great about a podcast is you can
Suze: always go back, listen to it again, read the transcripts
Suze: if I happen to be confusing you on something anyway.
Suze: Today's podcast, Suze School, is all about the stock market
Suze: and investments as well as compounding and things for you
Suze: to understand, obviously. So before I go into the stock market,
Suze: I want to go into a little bit of a
Suze: Suze Story about what I did with my own money.
Suze: Now I wasn't always good with money, you know, the
Suze: story about how I was in credit card debt and
Suze: blah blah blah blah, and when I finally started to
Suze: make money, I didn't quite trust myself, and I wanted
Suze: to just commit to a certain amount of money every
Suze: single month and just put it in to this one investment.
Suze: And no matter what, and this was 40 years ago,
Suze: put in $700 a month into this annuity that American
Suze: Express happened to be offering that at the time was
Suze: at 5%.
Suze: And I thought, OK, but at least they'll bill me
Suze: for it every single month as part of my American
Suze: Express card, and I have to pay it and I
Suze: have to come up with it, so that will be
Suze: my discipline of saving, and I did for 40 years now.
Suze: I have put in $700 a month, and it has
Suze: always made 5%.
Suze: Because that was the minimum guaranteed interest that they were
Suze: going to pay.
Suze: Do you know that after putting in $8400 a year
Suze: for 40 years, which is really a total of $336,000
Suze: that is how much I have put into that annuity.
Suze: That today it is worth over $1 million. That that
Suze: annuity has earned $705,000 in interest. I want you to
Suze: think about this. I still put in $8400 a year.
Suze: And right now that annuity earns $50,000 a year in interest.
Suze: Do you see how compounding my money is making interest?
Suze: That interest is making interest, and over 40 years now
Suze: I have $1 million in that annuity, and I'm not
Suze: going to stop. I'll just continue to do it. American
Suze: Express continues to bill me $700 on my Amex card.
Suze: But that is how true wealth is built little by little,
Suze: month by month, you don't hit it big overnight, and
Suze: I've done the same with many of my investments. So
Suze: the question really becomes for today's Suze School is what
Suze: kind of investor are you?
Suze: What is your game plan? Are you somebody that just
Suze: wants to hit it big? You make a lot of money,
Suze: you sell, you get back in, you're doing this, or
Suze: do you want to be consistently building wealth for yourself?
Suze: And if the answer is you want to consistently build
Suze: wealth for yourself, then your game plan has to be
Suze: one of savings versus consumption.
Suze: Understanding what money is really for, and a lot of
Suze: you think, oh, money is for buying a new car,
Suze: a bigger house, designer brand clothes, games and things for
Suze: my kids, no.
Suze: The truth of the matter is money is for savings.
Suze: It's for savings for the day that you can no
Suze: longer work and bring in the money to support what
Suze: it takes for you to live. Obviously for you to
Suze: have enjoyment and things like that, but your main goal
Suze: of it, everybody, really needs to be savings to watch
Suze: it grow cause you never ever know in life.
Suze: When something can happen and you no longer can work,
Suze: you no longer have that job that you thought you
Suze: were going to have forever. You no longer have the
Suze: home that you owned outright in California and your insurance
Suze: company happened to cancel you one month before the fires
Suze: hit a little bit ago.
Suze: And that was everything that you had. It was a
Suze: multi-million dollar home. You thought you were going to be
Suze: OK forever and now you have nothing.
Suze: So today's podcast really is about how do you build
Suze: something out of nothing.
Suze: And you build it one paycheck at a time, one
Suze: investment at a time, one savings account at a time,
Suze: getting out of debt, one credit card at a time.
Suze: Cause it's over time,
Suze: that true wealth can be built.
Suze: Let's now take that concept and let's put it towards
Suze: the stock market right now.
Suze: Because a lot of you are thinking, oh, I need
Suze: to lighten up on my investments here in the United
Suze: States because the United States is going down. I can't
Suze: trust anything here. I'm afraid of it here, and I
Suze: want to start putting my money overseas. Now you heard
Suze: me say a little bit ago that diversification was key.
Suze: But I didn't mean to diversify outside of the United States.
Suze: I meant to diversify within the United States the type
Suze: of stocks you own, the ETFs that you own, the
Suze: real estate that you own, the gold that you own,
Suze: the bonds that you own, all of those things.
Suze: And so many of you have really taken what I
Suze: said to heart in the wrong, wrong way. So let's
Suze: straighten it out right now. What do I think is
Suze: going to happen here in the United States when it
Suze: comes to the stock market? I think over the next
Suze: 2 or 3 weeks, as I said, the roller coaster
Suze: rides will continue, and you might see that these markets
Suze: go down for the next 2 or 3 weeks. OK.
Suze: But after that, all the way through the end of
Suze: this year, the very beginning of 2026, I think you
Suze: are going to see the stock market absolutely skyrocket. That
Suze: is what I think. We have now since 2009, been
Suze: in what's called a secular bull market. Obviously a bull
Suze: market is one that goes straight up.
Suze: A bear market is one that goes straight down. Secular
Suze: meaning long term.
Suze: A secular bull market is a market that can last
Suze: for 18 years, 20 years, even longer, where the overall
Suze: trend is up.
Suze: But the overall trend can be disrupted by something known
Suze: as a cyclical bear market where the market goes down
Suze: for a period of time, and it is absolutely possible
Suze: that the market could go down 10 or 20% or more.
Suze: And then it resumes its upward trend. So overall, the
Suze: upward trend in my opinion is still up because we're
Suze: in a secular bull market. Now within the secular bull market,
Suze: obviously there are different sectors that will absolutely go more
Suze: than others.
Suze: If you look at the stocks, I think you will
Suze: find that large growth stocks are stocks that increase in
Suze: price these coming next few months. Many of the magnificent seven,
Suze: not all, will participate. Some of the fang stocks will participate.
Suze: Do you even remember what they are? If you don't
Suze: remember what they are, you should look them up. But anyway,
Suze: I think they will participate.
Suze: I don't exactly think that value stocks will participate or
Suze: small cap stocks right now, but I do think large
Suze: growth stocks will do it now.
Suze: With that said,
Suze: I said stocks. I didn't say stock.
Suze: Again, what's aggravating me are people are asking me, Suze,
Suze: just give me the name of one other stock that
Suze: you think's going to go up big like Palantir did.
Suze: Are you kidding me? One stock, 3 stocks, 5 stocks
Suze: does not a portfolio make. If you are going to
Suze: be investing in the stock market in individual stocks, you
Suze: best listen to me very, very carefully right now.
Suze: You need to have at least 25, maybe even 50
Suze: individual stocks so that you could have true diversification. I
Suze: have over 100 stocks that I own.
Suze: And I do have true diversification, and I do that
Suze: rather than exchange traded funds because I watch my stocks
Suze: every day. I do option strategies on the stocks and
Suze: I'm very active with them. But if that's not you
Suze: and the majority of you, it's not you.
Suze: One of the best ways to invest is through an
Suze: index ETF. Many of you have spiders, SPY, the Standard
Suze: Poor's 500 index, or VOO or VTI Vanguard total Index ETF.
Suze: You have that diversification. But what's interesting about those ETFs,
Suze: now listen to me closely.
Suze: They're really a blend of stocks. They're not all large
Suze: cap growth stocks. They're both growth and value like the
Suze: spider SPY is a large cap blended ETF where you
Suze: have about 23% is of growth stocks, 48% may be
Suze: blended stocks of both, maybe 29% is value, so you
Suze: have a combination there.
Suze: Now I think what's good about owning ETFs like that
Suze: is that even though what we're going to see, in
Suze: my opinion is that the move truly be in large
Suze: growth stocks through the beginning of 26 or end of 25,
Suze: then I think that you might see it switch to
Suze: value stocks. So every cycle different stocks have a run.
Suze: So to make sure that you're safe and you don't
Suze: come out and go, OK, now it's time for me
Suze: to get out of large growth stocks and go into
Suze: value stocks. No, that's when you have like a blended
Suze: ETF like SPY or VOO or whatever it may be
Suze: so that no matter what's happening in the market, you
Suze: are participating.
Suze: However, if you would like to only have an ETF
Suze: that specializes in growth, you could always do the SPYG,
Suze: that is the symbol, which is the Standard and Poor's
Suze: growth ETF or the Vanguard growth, which is VUG, and
Suze: those are ETFs that are made up 100% of your growth.
Suze: So you might want to mix a little bit in
Suze: that for now.
Suze: But overall, a blended area is just fine for you.
Suze: Now with that said, I think it is possible that
Suze: you will see these markets go up again to the
Suze: beginning of 26 or the end of 25. Then I
Suze: would not be shocked if it went all the way
Suze: back down again to where they were in April, could
Suze: go back down S&P to 4500.
Suze: And stay there for a while and then eventually resume
Suze: and go all the way back up again. Do I
Suze: think it's possible that you could even see 7000 on
Suze: the S&P 500? I do.
Suze: But you have to be in it for the long run,
Suze: remember to build wealth.
Suze: And so the biggest mistake that you can make seriously
Suze: is if you're in this, you see it go up,
Suze: let's just say, to 6 or 7000 at the end
Suze: of this year, and you're just so happy and you
Suze: watch it go all the way down again maybe to
Suze: 4500 if that happens and you freak out and that's
Suze: where you sell. Do you remember last week I gave
Suze: you an emotional quiz?
Suze: If you scored low on that quiz, that means you
Suze: buy at the wrong time, you sell at the wrong time,
Suze: your emotions dictate what you do. The biggest mistake you
Suze: can make is watch it go from 6000 all the
Suze: way down to 4500, and that's where you sell.
Suze: If you think those are your tendencies, then fine, sell
Suze: at 6000 and see what happens, cause who knows, maybe
Suze: it will continue up, maybe it will go down or
Suze: sell half. But if you've decided that you are in
Suze: this for the long run, you continue to dollar cost
Suze: average as it goes all the way down.
Suze: And then watch it go all the way up and
Suze: just keep doing it and have your money compound like
Suze: the example that I gave you with my annuity. All right, everybody,
Suze: so that's what I think is going to happen now.
Suze: What's interesting is that I do think if you look
Suze: at bonds, let's talk about them for a second here,
Suze: bonds are just in limbo here. They don't even know
Suze: what they're doing. I think it is totally probable and
Suze: possible that you could see the 10 year go to 5%,
Suze: but I don't think you're going to see it go
Suze: a whole lot higher than that. But bonds seem to
Suze: be on the rise right now.
Suze: I think if we just look at gold briefly here,
Suze: gold obviously is on its way down a little bit.
Suze: You saw it at 3500. Now it's around 3200. I
Suze: think gold is a safe haven, believe it or not.
Suze: I think many, many people will feel safe there. I
Suze: think if it goes below 3000, which it might, if
Suze: you want to accumulate a little bit more, you can.
Suze: I think you are better off investing in the ETF
Suze: GLD versus the miners now GOLD. The miner stocks just
Suze: are not really functioning the way that they should be,
Suze: so that's just something to know about there.
Suze: And let's talk about oil for one second here. You know,
Suze: here's the truth of the matter is that oil obviously
Suze: peaked when Russia attacked Ukraine in March of 2022. Do
Suze: you remember this? It was at $130 a barrel, and
Suze: ever since then you've been seeing it go down and
Suze: down and down.
Suze: And recently it was at $55 a barrel, so a
Suze: lot of you that are still in energy stocks and everything,
Suze: you're a little freaked about it, however,
Suze: here's what I want you all to understand is that
Suze: the demand for oil, whether you want it to or not,
Suze: continues to grow, and that's because there are more emerging
Suze: economies that are out there, and they are increasingly demanding
Suze: the use of oil.
Suze: So as much as I personally would like to see
Suze: the green dream come a reality, I just don't think
Suze: it's possible. I look at the blackouts that recently were
Suze: in Spain as well as Europe across their entire electric grid,
Suze: so wind and solar, it's just not stable.
Suze: And it just creates too much of energy at a
Suze: point in time or not enough, so I think it
Suze: is very possible and probable that over the next two years,
Suze: do not be surprised if you see energy stocks and
Suze: everything go back up and you see oil at about 100.
Suze: And $50 a barrel or higher, so it's still too
Suze: early in my opinion to go into energy stocks, but
Suze: there will come a day where you want to invest
Suze: again in energy stocks, and I think that will be
Suze: in around 2026. So just be patient there.
Suze: And one last thing that I want to touch on,
Suze: which is Bitcoin. Listen.
Suze: I know that I've always said only invest in money
Suze: that you can afford to lose and things like that,
Suze: and that's because is Bitcoin going to stay? Is it legit?
Suze: What's going to happen with it? I have to tell you,
Suze: at this point in time, I do think Bitcoin is
Suze: here to stay and some of the better cryptos that
Suze: are out there. Why do I think that?
Suze: Because there is not a 40 year old, a 30
Suze: year old that I can talk to that doesn't want
Suze: to put all their money into bitcoin, so this certain
Suze: age of investors have a total addiction to assets like
Suze: Bitcoin when I see that and I see stocks like Coinbase,
Suze: which happens to be the entity that many of the
Suze: cryptos are traded through, being added to the Standard and
Suze: Poor's 500 index.
Suze: That just says to me the writing is on the wall,
Suze: but do not think, everybody, that if the markets go down,
Suze: Bitcoin is going to go up. Bitcoin will absolutely follow
Suze: the Nasdaq 100 because that is what it has been doing.
Suze: So if the Nasdaq 100 happens to go down, Bitcoin
Suze: is going to go down.
Suze: A whole lot more. I still like investing in Bitcoin
Suze: through the ETF IBIT. You also, if you want to
Suze: do it through a stock micro strategies symbol MSTR is
Suze: another way that you can do it since it moves
Suze: along with Bitcoin.
Suze: But that is what I think. Do not be surprised
Suze: to see Bitcoin one day at 130, 150. It can
Suze: very easily go up there. How long it will take,
Suze: I don't know, but here we are at 102. Did
Suze: you ever think it would be there, right, everybody, that
Suze: gives you a recap of kind of what's happening, but
Suze: the real theme here.
Suze: The theme has to be savings versus consumption.
Suze: It's important, and here is the reason why it is
Suze: so important.
Suze: The question also has to be asked and answered. Suze,
Suze: what could make these markets go down next year? Why
Suze: do you think that's possible and what will you be
Suze: watching for?
Suze: Two things I will be watching for big time. Number one,
Suze: believe it or not, politics. Politics has absolutely had an
Suze: effect on these markets. Look at what happened in April
Suze: when the tariffs were announced. The markets went down significantly
Suze: as soon as it was announced that the tariffs
Suze: were going to be reduced. The market went up big time.
Suze: Politics and what happens has got to be watched because
Suze: it will have an effect. I don't care what anybody says. Next,
Suze: the earnings of these stocks. It's too soon to tell
Suze: if the earnings, which means the money these stocks have
Suze: been making.
Suze: Will be up or down because it's too soon to
Suze: tell the effect that the tariffs have had on their earnings,
Suze: so we'll know that in the next months or so
Suze: if the earnings are going down, politics are getting involved.
Suze: I have to tell you that's probably what will be
Suze: the start of the downward market. Time will tell. So
Suze: if that were to happen.
Suze: That's why it's important to have savings versus consumption. All
Suze: the things in your household, all the clothes, everything that
Suze: you have around you are not going to pay your bills.
Suze: They're just not.
Suze: So what you want is a life of true wealth.
Suze: True wealth comes when you feel secure, because that is
Suze: the goal of money, and the reason you feel secure
Suze: is that you know you have savings to get you
Suze: by if certain things go wrong.
Suze: So that is your goal. So until Thursday when Ms.
Suze: Travis joins me again with the Ask KT and Suze
Suze: Anything edition of the Women and Money podcast, there's only
Suze: one thing that I want you to remember when it
Suze: comes to your money, and it is this people first,
Suze: then money, then things. Now you stay safe.
Suze: Bye bye.